Going the Distance: Four Ways to Build a Better Customer Loyalty Program for Your Brand

It’s easy enough for a customer to join your loyalty program, especially when you’re offering an incentive such as discounts. All your customer has to do is give out some basic information, and voila! They’re in the fold, a brand new loyalty member with your company. From there, it’s happily ever after. You offer the perks; they stand solidly by you, bringing you their continued business. Simple. Or is it? In reality, just how many of those customers are act ively participating in your loyalty program? Do you know? Sure, loyalty program memberships are on the rise according to market research company eMarketer, having jumped 25 percent in the space of just two years. However, that figure may be a bit misleading. The truth is that, while loyalty program sign-ups may be more numerous, active participation in such programs is actually in decline. At the time of the study, the average US household had memberships in 29 loyalty programs; yet consumers were only active in 12 of those. That’s just 41 percent. And even that meager figure represents a drop of 2 percentage points per year over each of the preceding four years, according to a study by loyalty-marketing research company COLLOQUY.

When discounts just aren’t enough

So what’s a brand to do? How can you make your loyalty program worth your customer’s while—as well as your own? After all, gaining a new loyalty member doesn’t mean much if your customer isn’t actively participating in your program. Consider this: Does your customer loyalty program offer members anything different from what your competitors are offering? Chances are your program includes discounts. That’s a given. And what customer doesn’t appreciate a good discount? But when every other company out there is providing this staple benefit in comparable amounts, it becomes less and less likely that customers will remain loyal to any one particular brand. Frankly, it’s all too easy for customers to get lost in a sea of loyalty member discounts. They’re everywhere. In fact, just under half of internet users perceive that all rewards programs are alike, according to a 2015 eMarketer survey. The key to success, then, is to differentiate your business from the crowd. If you can offer your customers something unique and valuable beyond the usual discount, chances are they’ll be more likely to stick with your brand. Here’s some inspiration from companies who get it.

Virgin: Reward more purchases with more benefits.

That’s not to say you need to get rid of discounts entirely. In fact, nothing could be further from the truth. Customers still love a good discount. The goal is to be creative in terms of the loyalty perks you offer. Take the Virgin Atlantic Flying Club, for example. As part of its loyalty program, the airline allows members to earn miles and tier points. Members are inducted at the Club Red tier, from which they can move up to Club Silver and then Club Gold. Here, it’s not just a discount. It’s status. And people respond to feeling important, elite. Still, even where the rewards themselves are concerned, Virgin is motivating loyalty customers with some pretty attractive offers. At the Club Red tier, members earn flight miles and receive discounts on rental cars, airport parking, hotels and holiday flights. But as members rise in tiers, they get even more. At the Club Silver tier, members earn 50 percent more points on flights, access to expedited check-in, and priority standby seating. And once they reach the top, Club Gold members receive double miles, priority boarding and access to exclusive clubhouses where they can get a drink or a massage before their flight. Now that’s some serious incentive to keep coming back for more. Discounts are still part of the equation – but they are designed with innovation and personal value in mind, elevating them to more than just savings.

Amazon Prime: Pay upfront and become a VIP.

What if your customers only had to pay a one-time upfront fee to get a year’s worth of substantial benefits? It may not sound like the smartest business idea at first glance. But take a closer look. Amazon Prime users pay a nominal $99 a year to gain free, two-day shipping on millions of products with no minimum purchase. And that’s just one benefit of going Prime. It’s true that Amazon loses $1-2 billion a year on Prime. This comes as no surprise given the incredible value the program offers. But get this: Amazon makes up for its losses in markedly higher transaction frequency. Specifically, Prime members spend an average of $1,500 a year on Amazon.com, compared with $625 spent by non-Prime users, a ccording to a 2015 report from Consumer Intelligence Research Partners.

Patagonia: Cater to customer values.

Sometimes, the draw for consumers isn’t saving money or getting a great deal. The eco-friendly outdoor clothing company Patagonia figured this out back in 2011, when it partnered with eBay to launch its Common Threads Initiative: a program that allows customers to resell their used Patagonia clothing via the company’s website. Why is this program important to customers? And how does it benefit Patagonia? The company’s brand embraces environmental and social responsibility, so it was only fitting that they create a platform for essentially recycling old clothing rather than merely throwing it away. The Common Threads Initiative helps Patagonia build a memorable brand and fierce loyalty by offering its customers a cause that aligns with deep personal values. OK, so their customers get to make a little money, too. Everybody wins.

American Airlines: Gamify your loyalty program.

If you’re going to offer your customers a loyalty program, why not make it f un? After all, engagement is key to building a strong relationship with your customer. And what better way to achieve that goal than making a game of it. American Airlines had this very thing in mind when it created its AAdvantage Passport Challenge following its merger with USAirways. The goal: find a new way to engage customers as big changes were underway. Using a custom Facebook application, American Airlines created a virtual passport to increase brand awareness while offering members a chance to earn bonus points. Customers earned these rewards through a variety of game-like activities, from answering trivia questions to tracking travel through a personalized dashboard. In the end, participants earned more than 70 percent more stamps than expected – and the airline saw a ROI of more than 500 percent. The takeaway: people like games.

Stand out from the crowd.

Your approach to your customer loyalty program should align with your overall marketing approach. Effective branding is about standing out, not blending it. Being memorable is key. To this end, keep in mind that loyalty programs are no longer a novelty. That means that yesterday’s strategies won’t work moving forward, so look for ways to rise above the noise, setting yourself apart from the cloying drone of countless other cookie-cutter programs.

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20 Questions to Determine If It’s Time to Redesign Your Website, Part 1

Your website should be your number one salesman 24 hours a day, seven days a week. If that’s not the case, then you need to find out why it’s not performing as it should. If your answer is “no” to any of these questions, a redesign might be just the right prescription to boost your site’s ability to attract new leads and cure what’s ailing your conversion rate.

1. Is the design beautiful?

Once upon a time, it was enough to simply have a website as the online outpost for your business – a virtual Yellow Pages ad of sorts. In today’s culture of the Web, that’s no longer the case. Just as design principles, interface conventions and programming languages have evolved, user expectations have become more sophisticated right along with them. Potential customers make no differentiation between the quality of your website and the quality of your brand. If your site is ugly and outdated, your brand will be headed for extinction right along with it.

2. Is the content beautiful?

The text on your website is just as much a part of its design as other ostensibly visual elements such as the color palette, typography, images and layout. If this seems like an oxymoron, it’s not. In fact, design is the packaging for the delivery your content. If a visitor to your site lands on a page and sees nothing but a disorganized sea of text, they’ll be immediately overwhelmed, and they won’t even begin to try to make sense of it. Good design applies content to the canvas of your site with the finesse of an artist. By augmenting your text with beautiful photography, illustrations, diagrams, infographics and pull-quotes, you’ll create a more pleasing user experience every time.

3. Does it reflect the personality of your brand?

In the age of social media, the walls that once existed between companies and their customers have been torn down. People want to do business with people, even when the actual exchange occurs between computer screens. It’s easy to let your corporate guard down on Facebook and Twitter. But what happens when your fans and followers land on your site and find it completely devoid of personality? The discrepancy will be off-putting. It will make your social media engagements feel phony and make the user experience on your website feel cold and empty. There are any number of ways to infuse personality into your website – blog articles, powerful images, video content, interaction with customers through reviews and comments...the list goes on and on. Make sure that your website has a pulse.

4. Is it built for your target audience?

A site that tries to serve the needs of every imaginable user will effectively serve the needs of none of them. Think about your typical sales prospect. How sophisticated are they? Where are they in their decision-making process? What are their questions and concerns? Do they know what they need buy not who they want to buy it from? If so, the most important objective your site needs to accomplish is establishing credibility and trust. Do they not know what they need? Or are you bringing something new to the market? Then your website must first lay a foundation of education while also building trust.

5. Is it user-driven?

Does your site serve you or your visitors? Before you answer, realize that’s a more complex question than it seems on the surface. A site that serves you goes straight for the kill with its sales pitch. It’s all about you, you, you, and how absolutely, indisputably awesome you are. A site that serves your visitors is built around utility. It speaks their language. It answers the questions and concerns that are on their minds. It helps them make decisions they feel confident in. It makes their lives easier or more fun. It gives them reasons to come back again and again. It offers them opportunities to interact with your brand and with other customers like them. It creates a place where the members of your tribe want to be. And, yes, it does sell. But it does so based on a foundation of trust and relationship-building.

6. Is the content-to-framework ratio in check?

Many websites devote far too much real estate to the framework, letting supersized logos and tag lines, multiple tiers of navigation, log-in and search fields, mammoth masthead images and trendy social media widgets become the dominant visual elements of the site. Remember that the framework of your website represents nothing more than a set of branding and navigational tools that literally frame the canvas on which your content lives. And just as a frame shouldn’t steal focus from a painting, the framework of your site shouldn’t steal the spotlight from the content you depend on to achieve conversions. Instead, it should remain as streamlined and unobtrusive as possible. If your visitors spend enough time on your site, they should all but forget it’s even there. If more than 20 percent of the screen is devoted to the framework, the only cure is to apply good principals of architecture and organization to rebalance the design.

7. Is there engaging content front and center throughout?

In today’s Web marketing universe, content is the catalyst of organic business growth. High quality, unique content that is updated regularly elevates you perceived authority with search engines, which improves your ranking in searches pertaining to your core offering, which brings more qualified visitors to your site. And when those prospects land on your site, your content builds trust, vets your expertise and motivates buying decisions. But remember, content is not just your brochure copy, nor is it just your blog. It’s your product descriptions, videos, images, customer reviews and reader comments. All of these elements must work in conjunction to allow your customers to connect with your company and your brand on a more intimate level.

8. Is it a slave to the fold?

For years, everyone obsessed over making sure every ounce of important content was squeezed into the limited real estate that falls above the mythical “fold.” Unfortunately, this is nothing more than a wide-spread fallacy of good website design and architecture. Think about it: which would you rather do – dig through page after page of content or simply scroll down? That’s right. Scrolling down the page is a perfectly acceptable method of scanning and seeking through content. This is all the more true now that touch-based interfaces have gone mainstream and scrolling involves the mere swipe of a finger. By contrast, pagination introduces a wait state which requires visitors to reset their viewpoint and mentally realign with your interface. This is a jarring and disruptive experience, and with every click-and-reset, you run the risk of losing their patience or attention. Simply put, give your content room to breathe and let your pages scroll.

9. Are your customers’ voices being represented?

We’ve said it before, and we’ll say it again: in today’s consumer-driven marketplace, nothing holds greater sway than word-of-mouth. If you want to build instant trust and credibility through your website, find ways to let your customers do the talking for you, whether it’s through testimonials, case studies, ratings or reviews.

10. Does it stack up to the competition?

As we’ve established previously, you shouldn’t fall into the trap of including unnecessary bells and whistles on your site simply because your competitors do. Your site should be designed to serve your business growth objectives and no one else’s. But make no mistake: today’s consumer will shop around. You’ll will be compared to the competition. However, it’s important to scrutinize the fundamental elements of the user experience your competitors’ sites provide. If they’ve set the bar, you must raise it higher.

Did you pass?

If you’ve answered “no” to several of these questions, do not pass go, do not collect $200. You can’t afford to let another day go by with a website that’s not only underperforming but actually sending customers to your competitors. If you’re 10 for 10 in the “yes” column, don’t breathe a sigh of relief just yet. You’ve only passed the first half of the test. Next, we’ll take a closer look to uncover the insidious, silent killers that are harder to detect but equally deadly to your site’s performance.

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The Six Types of Website Visitors – And How to Serve Each of Them

Every website’s audience is comprised of different kinds of visitors, and those people can almost always be broken down into one of 6 distinct categories. Visitors in each of these categories share similar needs and goals on the website, which means that by understanding the needs of each category and ensuring that your website does what it can to meet those needs, you can better serve those individual users. In this article, we will take a high-level look at the 6 categories of visitors common to almost all websites. We will also explore some of the characteristics of each of these categories and what you can do on your website to cater to each of them.

1. The Browser

The first group of visitors we will look at are those that are “just browsing” the site and in their earliest stage of research. These visitors may have need of the products or services that you offer, but they are far away from the point of purchase. Currently, they are seeing what is available so that they can learn what their options are. These visitors are looking to be educated and there is a prime opportunity for you to establish a strong, early-stage relationship with these visitors. To serve the needs of this “early stage research” group, your site should include content that educates visitors. By offering this content, you answer your visitors’ questions and become a trusted source of information. This is a great way to begin building a relationship with people, one that you hope will eventually turn them into customers! Many companies do not like to accommodate this early stage research group because they are so far away from the point of purchase and many visitors in this category will never turn into actual customers. Those companies prefer to focus their efforts on some of the categories which we will cover shortly, those where people are closer to making a purchase and therefore much easier to sell to. This is another reason why this group of visitors offers you a unique opportunity. Not only can you establish an early relationship by offering helpful information, but many of your competitors may have elected not to cater to this group, setting your company and your site apart for these “just looking” researchers. Make basic information easy to find on your site. Consider including some kind of “search tool” that allows these early stage researchers to query the information that they are looking for and find the exact pages of your site for that content. You can also consider adding a “101-style” page of a “FAQs” page that contains the basic questions and information this group of visitors may be after.

2. The Comparison Shopper

The next group of website visitors are those that are further down the road of being ready to make a purchase. They have been educated and largely know what they are looking for in terms of the product or service they need, now they are trying to determine who is the right company to provide that to them. They want to know what sets your company apart and why they should work with you instead of with someone else. In a way, these visitors are also looking to be educated, but not on the general aspects of what you do. Instead, they want to know about your company specifically. These people are motivated and will likely make a commitment soon. Now is your chance to show them why that choice should be you. To cater to this audience, consider adding pricing to your website. This is not always appropriate or even possible, but price is one of the deciding factors in almost all purchasing decisions, yet many companies elect to leave pricing off their website because of fears that they will show their hand to competitors (more on that later). If you can add pricing to your site, do so! Even if you are not the lowest, adding pricing has value because so few of your competitors have pricing on their sites! This sets you apart and, for some visitors, it may immediately answer a major concern for them (“what is this going to cost me?”) and, if that price is what they were hoping for, you may be able to seal the deal right then and there. Besides pricing, other helpful information that you can consider adding could be warranty or service information, average timelines for the work that you do, or any other content specific to your organization and offerings.

3. The Decider

The next logical group to cover are those customers that are absolutely ready to buy. They have been educated on both the products or services that you offer as well as on what sets your organization apart. They have decided that you are the right fit for them – now you need to make the purchasing process as easy as possible so you can close this deal! If your website actually coverts business online, meaning you allow for online purchasing or registration and that is how you gain customers, then make sure that the check-out or registration process is simple and working! I am always amazed when I see a website that does a great job educating visitors and differentiating their company, but a technical glitch prevents visitors from taking that final step and becoming actual customers! Error messages that come up during checkout or registration will destroy the relationship you have been working hard to forge, so be sure that your site is up and running as intended! You should have some kind of “regular checkup” planned for your site. Waiting for customers to report to you that something is broken is waiting too long, because many customers will never report that problem to you - they will simply take their business elsewhere. This is why your site needs to be working as intended always – and you need to have a process in place to review the site’s functionality regularly. If you do not allow customers to convert online, but they instead need to call to schedule an appointment with your company, then make sure that it is obvious that they need to do this and make sure your contact information is easy to find! Furthermore, consider doing away with automated phone systems whenever possible. A motivated buyer who picks a phone and is greeted with a too-long, robotic welcome message is often as much of a deal-breaker as a website that throws errors. You’ve convinced this person that your company is the right fit for their needs, now greet them with a human touch and stay away from the automated systems.

4. The Familiar

So far, we have looked exclusively at net new customers, but one of the best sources of new business for any company are their existing clients. While your site needs to appeal to new customers, it should also speak to existing ones who are familiar with your company and happy with your services. In many cases, customers may work with you for one specific product of service, unaware of other services you offer as well. Your site can make these customers aware of your full range of offerings and strengthen the relationship you have with them. Your website also allows you to inform existing customers about important updates or announcements that may affect them. These could be simple hours of operation changes for your company or other updates that they should be aware of. Remember, if you started out a relationship by being a thought- leader and provider of useful information, that should not stop once you are engaged with those customers. Consider adding an ‘Existing Customers’ section to your site with this type of information. You do not necessarily need to password protect this information, assuming it is not client-specific and sensitive, but rather allow anyone to view it. In this way, you can give existing customers useful information and show other visitors your commitment to long term relationships with your clients!

5.The Applicant

Stepping away from the ‘customer’ side of your website’s audience, there are other visitors to your site that you should consider. One of these is potential new employees. If you site has a ‘careers’ or ‘job openings’ page, then this is likely where potential new employees will be looking. You do not need to give these pages front-and-center, top-level billing - most job seekers are motivated enough to find this content even if it is not given the same level of prominence that you give you customer-oriented content (and if that job seeker is not motivated enough to find the link, you probably don’t want to hire them anyway). In addition to the actual job listings, however, you may also want to consider adding some content about what life is like at your company – your ‘company culture’, for instance. When you are looking to recruit the best talent out there, they will want to know more about your company than just the hard facts covered in a job listing. This is where a little information about your company culture can really come in handy and help you appeal to the best of the best.

6. The Competitor

Earlier I mentioned that many companies do not put pricing on their website for fear that their competition will find it. This doesn’t end with pricing. I have seen companies “hide” content behind registration systems, or elect to leave it off a site altogether to prevent competitors from gathering that information. In almost all cases, this is a bad idea. After all, if you make your information difficult for competitors to find, you also make it difficult for actual customers to get that same information. Yes, there are times when the information you provide to customers is so individualized or sensitive that you could not make it public on your site, but that is an edge-case. For most businesses, the only reason they elect to leave this content off their site is that aforementioned “fear of competitors getting it”. Here’s the reality, however – if your competition wants that information, they will get it. If they are motivated to get that info, they will jump through the hoops you set up. Customers, however, will not generally go to those lengths. So by “hiding” content from competition, you really only keep it away from the very people you want to speak to – new customers! Do not be afraid of your competition. Be bold and put your content out there for all to see. One of two things will happen. Either your competition will follow suit and put their info out there as well, which allows you to compete on a level playing field, or they will continue to hide it away, which shows customers how open you are and often makes you the more appealing choice. Either way, by making your content easy to access for all categories of visitors to your site, to do the best job of serving the ones that matter to you most.

Appealing to all visitors

By understanding the needs of the visitors your website has, you and your web or marketing team can make the right decisions to best meet the needs of all visitors.

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